Slice of Life: Musical Notes

(This is for Slice of Life with Two Writing Teachers)

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There’s a been a lot of music happening in the past week, so here are three musical slices from my end of the world.

First, I recently dug up an old son that I had written back when my oldest sons were little, capturing that feeling that the world was pulling them away from my influence. This is natural, of course, but as a parent, it’s one of the most disconcerting things when you realize that peers and media and other elements are beginning to influence your children in ways you had not yet comprehended or understood, or planned for. This song — Innocent Boy — has been around in my guitar case for years, but I pulled it out recently and recorded it in Garageband if only to make sure I have it around as a legacy song for my three sons. <sap alert>

Innocent Boy

Second, two weekends ago, with my wife and kids out of town, I grabbed the guitar and wrote a quick song. After sharing it out a bit, I thought: I should send this to Luke and see if he has any interest in adding some trumpet to it. His #nerdlution resolution is get back to his horn. He agreed and wrote and recorded the horn track, and then sent the file back to me. I have not done much musical collaboration like that. We may keep working on the song together. We’ll see. But my bandmates in Duke Rushmore are interested, so this one may become a full band song soon.

Lift You Up (with guest horn by Luke)

Finally, speaking of Duke Rushmore, the other night, at practice, we began working on I’ve Got My Anchor in You, which was a song I wrote a few months back and used as a remixing and reflective activity for Make/Hack/Play. It’s one of the better songs that I have written in some time, and to listen to it come alive with my bandmates – with a real singer, and the coming together of many instruments — is quite a feeling. This video reflection from a few months ago of how I came to write the song is still powerful, I think. If the band records our version, I’ll get that out, too.

Peace (in the muse),
Kevin

8 Comments
  1. Love “Innocent Boy” – it really captures that bittersweet time when one is letting go as a parent, and that is hard to do. Good news, though, they come back – and you get to se bits and pieces of the way your love and support will always guide them – no matter how far away they are, or how old they get.

  2. Thanks Kevin,
    A very rich slice. Wonderful tunes and the effort to explain the magic of creation.
    Puerto Rico is a perfect place to hear them with the sound of the ocean as a soundtrack.

  3. What a slice. Your songs are great gifts. Innocent Boy is perfect. What a wonderful thing to pass down to your sons. Love this line .. into the darkness just beyond reach, you capture that time in parenting perfectly.

  4. Really cool seeing your creation/editing process and hearing you talk about it over the track of the song. Having all those pieces together painted such a broader picture than just reading about it. As always, thanks for sharing!

  5. This was such an enjoyable post. I loved the songs, and having no musical inclination at all spent some time thinking about the process of deciding how to add the trumpet to Lift You Up. It amazes me how musicians just have a ear for this and can figure out where to add, what notes to play and how to make it all just sound fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

  6. I love how writing and music come together for you. How fun to share your clips and collaborate with a friend on a piece. Very much like the writing we want our students to do. Small pieces, in process, open for ideas and changes. Thanks for sharing.

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